If you have an egg, you have a meal. “Much more than an element of cooking,” as late French chef Michel Roux once told me, “It’s the pilot. It’s vital. It’s everything.” The basis for baked goods, pancakes, rich pastries, fresh pasta, soufflés, meringues, ice creams, custards, mousses, a simple scramble and more, much of what we eat depends on the humble egg.

The source of great pleasure and sustenance, it’s no wonder we feel unsettled when faced with a stark refrigerator case where cartons of eggs used to be. Stress-baking has become a popular pandemic pastime, more people are cooking at home and some are compelled to stockpile. This situation has led to a rush on eggs, but a retail shortage does not equal a dearth altogether.

“Our egg supply chain is not at risk,” says Mike von Massow, food economist at the University of Guelph, adding that although we’ve seen scarcity based on high demand, supply will even out as it’s diverted from restaurants to consumers. “I would be surprised if most households don’t have probably twice as many eggs as they usually have. That was not something we forecasted, so that has led to a shortage. I don’t think people are going to continue to buy twice as many eggs as they did before, so the system will catch up and eggs will continue to be on the shelf.”

In order to keep eggs affordable — like many other items, including toilet paper, which we’ve also seen retail shortages of — they’re produced according to a just-in-time process, von Massow explains. Based on forecasts, which are determined by historical demand and an understanding of how things might change, we’re left short when something unexpected happens. “And that’s often exacerbated by the fact that people say, ‘Oh, there are shortages. We should buy more,’” he says.

Farmer Murray Thunberg, who raises heritage breeds of pork and egg-laying poultry on his farm outside of Cambridge, Ont., says demand has been so high in southwestern Ontario that people have started knocking on doors. “Eggs are gold right now,” he says. “People are going to houses that don’t even have egg signs and asking for eggs.”

Thunberg’s customers have also been looking for more. Stores that used to order one or two cases (there are 15 dozen eggs in a case) per week are requesting five to seven; those that once asked for five to six are ordering 12 to 15. One customer who typically went through eight cases a week now wants 25. Over Christmas, Thunberg had built up a surplus of roughly one-week’s worth of eggs, which he expected to gradually exhaust in the period leading up to Easter. “It just went in one week,” he says.

In order to keep eggs affordable, they’re produced according to a just-in-time process.Johannes Eisele /
AFP via Getty Images

Roger Pelissero, chair of the board for Egg Farmers of Canada, says that while COVID-19 has resulted in unprecedented demand, there has been a small drop of late. “I wouldn’t say we’re getting back to normal but we’re not seeing the depletion of the egg counter happening as quickly as it did say a week and a half ago,” he says, adding that eggs are still being produced in great numbers every day. “As egg farmers here in Canada, we’re doing everything to make sure that the demand (consumers) want is going to be met.”

Regardless of how long they may last, these short-term retail shortages are already having interesting effects. Left wanting after unfruitful trips to the grocery store, an increasing number of Americans have started raising backyard chickens. As The Washington Post reports, hatcheries across the U.S. are now feeling the strain of a spike in orders, with some reporting a 100 per cent increase in sales and others lengthy waitlists.

Backyard chickens provide companionship and compellingly during COVID-19, plenty of eggs. While some people may be scrambling to find them at their local grocery store, L.A.-based writer Kate E. Richards — author of the forthcoming Drinking with Chickens (April 7, Running Press) and creator of the blog drinkingwithchickens.com — has more than she can handle. “We’re rolling in them right now,” she says.

Richards and her husband have been raising chickens for nine years, and currently have a flock eight-hens strong. Laying is affected by season, she explains — it slows down during winter and picks up again during spring. Right now her chickens are in “peak egg-laying mode,” with each laying roughly one egg per day. “We are definitely sharing with our neighbours and our friends, safely, socially distant,” she says, laughing. “And of course, I like to use them in cocktails. That’s my whole jam.”

Since the pandemic started, more people than ever have been asking Richards questions about raising backyard chickens as they ponder the option for themselves. A proponent of hen-keeping for anyone who’s able, she stresses the importance of doing your research rather than acting on impulse (Fresh Eggs Daily is a favourite resource). Raising chickens has brought her happiness, and the extra time she spends in the yard supervising their free-range time has greatly enhanced her life. But she cautions that there have been many surprises along the way, including the realization that they need more space than many people assume.

“We keep learning things as we go. And to be really happy, healthy animals, they certainly need much bigger coops and enclosures than we initially understood they did,” says Richards. “A lot of people go, ‘Oh! They don’t need a big coop because they’ll be free-ranging the yard.’ Well, they’re super susceptible to predators if they’re just loose in the yard all the time.”

Living outside, chickens are exposed to wild birds — including aerial predators — and vulnerable to disease. “They’re very fragile animals actually. And that’s a very large part of chicken keeping that no one really thinks about when they’re buying these adorable baby chicks. They’re fragile and you will have deaths in your flock. And if a predator gets into the run or something, there are a lot of emotional negatives that come with it,” she says. “But overall, they’ve been such a blessing and a force of joy for us.”

There are plenty of reasons to consider raising backyard chickens, if your circumstances allow — eggs being one of the most versatile bonuses. But feeling the need to adopt hens or buy chicks out of fears of food scarcity due to COVID-19 is not one of them. Egg production in Canada is highly predictable, emphasizes von Massow, and is unlikely to be disrupted even if stricter social distancing measures are put into place.

“It isn’t a particularly labour-intensive process anymore. We don’t have people, for the most part, walking through barns picking up eggs. Eggs are coming out, rolling onto a conveyor, and the conveyor brings them to the front of the barn where they’re often automatically stacked onto cartons. This process is safe and robust. If you want to have chickens in your backyard, by all means do it. But don’t feel you have to in order to maintain your egg supply.”

Bill Buford spoke about moving to Lyon with his family for a year to write Dirt, and then staying five, about their lives now in New York, and the future ...

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